Description

1915-S $50 Panama-Pacific 50 Dollar Octagonal MS67 NGC. The
Panama-Pacific fifty dollar octagonal gold commemorative piques
several collecting interests. It is one of just eight classic gold
commemoratives produced from 1903 to 1926. It reprises the gold
pieces first produced by Augustus Humbert in 1851 as United States
Assayer of Gold in California, thus recalling the heritage of
private and Territorial gold issues. It is a large coin, having the
approximate size of four quarters arranged in a 2x2 grid, and a
weight of about 15 of those quarters. Every auction appearance of
the Pan-Pac octagonal commands interest, and the commemorative has
been popular since it was released during the Panama-Pacific
International Exposition in 1915.

Shortly after the United States started work on the Panama Canal in
1904, Reuben Hale and other members of the San Francisco Merchant's
Association proposed an exposition. Not only would the event
celebrate San Francisco's status as the major West Coast port for
canal traffic, but it would also mark the 400th anniversary of
Vasco Nuñez de Balboa's discovery of the Pacific Ocean. The
disastrous 1906 earthquake put a hold on those plans, but only
temporarily. Roger W. Burdette (2007) elaborates: "The rebuilding
of San Francisco seemed to stimulate fundraising for the exposition
and some individual pledges exceeded $250,000 ... the exposition
was seen by San Francisco businesses as a unique opportunity to
'... draw the attention of the world to San Francisco' and promote
it as a 'playground of America for tourists.' "

That last sentiment proved prescient, as people came from all over
the United States to view the magnificent displays. The crowds
included politicians and celebrities such as Woodrow Wilson,
Theodore Roosevelt, Eddie Rickenbacker, Thomas Edison, and Helen
Keller. The Liberty Bell was there, shipped from Independence Hall
in Philadelphia. The Ford Motor Company set up an assembly line in
the Palace of Transportation, producing a car every 10 minutes for
a few hours each afternoon. The promoters of the exposition did not
hide their enthusiasm, stating in the exposition brochure that "the
Panama-Pacific Exposition is an encyclopedia of modern achievement.
You are afforded an opportunity to make a comparative study of the
methods and manners of modern civilization ... such an event will
not occur again while you live." Lest the motivation for the event
be forgotten, the full-color cover displayed a larger-than-life man
pushing apart the earth to make way for the canal.

The authors of the exposition brochure declared that the various
architects, artists, and landscape gardeners had built a city that
was "straight out of a beautiful dream." For numismatists, there
were commemorative coins and a souvenir medal from the U.S. Mint.
The coins included a silver half dollar, a gold dollar, a gold
quarter eagle, and two types of a "quintuple eagle" or fifty dollar
coin, one round and the other octagonal. Both medal and coins were
to have been struck by the Mint on-site, but concerns about the
legality of minting U.S. coins at a non-official mint location
resulted in the moving of coin production to the nearby San
Francisco Mint. Legislation limited production of the fifty dollar
coins to 3,000 pieces, equally divided between the two styles.
Designs for the coins were solicited both internally, from
engravers Charles Barber and George Morgan, and from outside
through lists of capable artists provided by the Commission of Fine
Arts.

Robert Aitken, a New York artist on the commission's list as a
possible coin designer, was officially notified on January 21,
1915, that he had been selected to prepare designs for the fifty
dollar gold coins. Aitken, who had been persistent in his desire to
obtain a design commission for the exposition, was ahead of the
game. He had notified Mint Director George Roberts in November that
he was willing to "take up this work" immediately, so that the
process would not be compromised because of time constraints.
Aitken delivered sketches of the obverse and reverse designs to
acting Mint Director Frederick P. Dewey (Roberts had resigned
November 15, 1914) only two days after receiving his authorization
to proceed. After several weeks of negotiation between Aitken and
Treasury officials (extensively documented in Burdette's
Renaissance of American Coinage 1909-1915), Aitken's designs
were approved in early March.

The obverse of both fifty dollar coins depicts the Roman goddess
Minerva, while the reverse displays an owl, said to be sacred to
Minerva and a symbol of wisdom. Some suggest that the motifs
alluded to the need for America to be watchful and prepared on the
eve of this country's involvement in World War I, already raging in
Europe. The basic round and octagonal designs were the same,
everything from the outer text ring inward, though reduced in size
for the octagonal piece. On both obverse and reverse Aitken placed
an unbroken circle of dolphins into the spaces provided by the
angled corners of the octagonal design. Dolphins were considered
friends and guardians of sailors, and were symbolic of the new
connection between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans provided by the
Canal.

The allegorical nature of Aitken's designs received mixed reactions
both during design negotiations and after the coins were released.
Though some thought the symbolism appropriate, others complained
that the designs were nothing more than copies of ancient works.
Despite the promotional efforts of the enigmatic and sometimes
controversial Farran Zerbe, president of the ANA from 1908 to 1910
and the person in charge of the exposition's coin and medal
department, most of the fifty dollar coins went unsold and were
melted.

This offering is one of the 645 coins sold either during the
exposition or shortly thereafter (though the later sales may have
violated the terms of the authorizing legislation). The
presentation of this piece is amazing. The surfaces are
exceptionally clean, with no toning spots or significant marks,
indicating the piece has been carefully treasured and protected for
a century. Sharply struck, lustrous surfaces gleam with an
orange-tinted, honey-gold patina. Though fifty dollar Pan-Pac
octagonals are not uncommon in auction offerings, in this state of
preservation the coin is extremely rare. Neither NGC nor PCGS has
certified an example finer than MS67, and this sample is one of
only four listings at that grade in the NGC Census Report
(9/14). A rare and beautiful example of a historic issue, this coin
is truly a "numismatic sensation" that will be a highlight of the
most discriminating collection.Ex: FUN Signature (Heritage, 1/2009), lot 4216.From The Empire Collection.(Registry values: P7) (NGC ID# BYHP, PCGS# 7452)